The Last to Vanish

 “The Last to Vanish” by Megan Miranda
Published by Marysue Rucci Books (Simon & Schuster)
 
This is my second book by Megan Miranda and I just know I’ll be reading more.  I really like her writing style.  In the last one I read (All the Missing Girls), each chapter went back a day in time, so it was essentially told backwards.  For this story, there have been multiple instances over the years of people going missing from a small tourist town in NC.  Each section of the book is focused on one event, starting with the newest one.  When looking into the most recent disappearance, they learn something about the next most recent one.  So each section may focus on just one event, but it also provides insight in to the one prior.  It continues like that until you come to the original disappearance and then all the pieces are revealed as to what happened to each person.  That description may make it sound like the book is confusing, but it’s not.  It’s just a different way to spread them out rather than focusing on all the disappearances at the same time.  I really enjoyed it.
 
I only have two negatives.  At one point one of the characters just goes “silent” for a little bit with no explanation.  It was like they were forgotten (although my brain kept asking “where is x?”) until they suddenly reappeared at just the right time.  The other is that there was a backstory thrown in at the last minute that I didn’t find necessary.  Yes, it added an extra twist to the story but to me it felt “forced” and didn’t need to be there.  It took away from the flow of the story.  But even with those two personal criticisms, I still really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
 
Finished 12/8/24 – 4/5 stars
 
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